The Federal Character Commission on Friday said that any government organisations that failed to comply with the principles guiding recruitment in the civil service would be sanctioned.
Mr David Fakeye, the Director, Monitoring and Enforcement of the commission gave the warning in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja.
“The commission is ready to penalise any organisation that does not comply with the principles guiding recruitment in public service or refuses to cooperate with the commission`s request.
“ The commission will cancel recruitments not based on its principles or sanction defaulting organisations.
“The commission is empowered to demand and receive returns on employment and socio-economic indices from any enterprises or corporate body.''
He said that the commission had been having interactive meetings with all the MDAs, and educating them on the principles guiding recruitment in public service.
Fakeye said that some organisations had been sanctioned by the commission, and the detected anomalies were corrected.
He emphasised that the commission`s principles enshrined in the 1979 Constitution were to ensure that appointments to public offices reflected the diverse nature of the country.
“This ideal is linked it with the objectives of achieving national unity in the country; the distinctive desire of the people to promote national unity and give every citizen a sense of belonging,’’ he explained.
The director added that the commission was committed to ensuring that there would be no predominance of persons from few states, ethnic or other sectional groups in government.
“It is our responsibility to ensure that the issue of marginalisation is resolved to foster equal opportunity and healthy competition to sustain the country’s democracy,’’ he said.
Fakeye said that the commission was charged with the function of promotion, monitoring and enforcing compliance with the principles of proportional sharing of all bureaucratic, economic, media and political posts at all levels of government.
“To discharge the mandate effectively, manpower statistical data becomes an indispensable tool in determining who has what, at where and how,’’ he said.
He said that manpower statistical data were required by policymakers of the commission to discharge its functions.